Hello!<p>I am trying to compile a list of common reasons why users don’t move from a big centralized evil™ service to either a self-hosted solution or another more “freedom friendly” option (say Gitlab.com vs Github.com) or some other thing altogether.<p>While there are ofcourse common regular reasons like “all my friends use it”, I wish to collect reasons specific to particular well-known services and not generic over all centralized services.<p>Would be super cool if the service you are talking about is well-known among the average Joe (yeah, like Facebook) and not just devs. It should however be well-known among atleast one of the either groups.<p>Disclaimer: I asked the same question on another link-aggregation community lobsters today itself: https://lobste.rs/s/qwfjab/what_is_keeping_you_from_leaving_large and I want to collect feedback from HN as well ;)
Why I don't leave Facebook: all my friends are on it and the product is well-made.<p>Why I don't leave Twitter: all the interesting people I want to follow are on it, and the product is adequate.<p>Why I don't leave MailChimp: it's easy to use and big enough + ubiquitous enough that I trust that they have their act together regarding the technical requirements.<p>Why I don't leave Bank of America: it provides an adequate checking account and I don't particularly have any other needs.<p>Why I don't leave Gmail: actually I did leave Gmail, for Fastmail, but Fastmail is equally centralized. It just has a few features that Gmail doesn't offer.<p>The main reasons I prefer a large centralized service are: 1) It's demonstrated that it's good enough for a lot of other people. 2) It's probably not going to shut down soon, especially not without warning. 3) There is some level of support available if I need it (social networks being an exception).